Luck and The Mystery Cat

This morning I went out for the papers and outside the dentists I noticed a large cat. He looked very familiar, like my neighbour's cat who is also large and furry. The fact that he came to me, didn't run away and had a harness on made me think I had the right cat, so I picked him up and took him to my neighbours about five doors down.

It was the right cat, my neighbour thought the cat was in the back garden on his leash, but it turned out that he had probably escaped when my neighbour was putting a bin out.

It got me thinking how many times it's lucky that we just happen to be in the right place at the right time. If I had not gone for the papers then I wouldn't have seen the cat and he may have got lost. This was not caused by any deliberate action be it was just a confluence of events that had a good conclusion.

Often people talk about fate or destiny but it's just really coincidence.

I just wanted to record that this happened.

I've also done some hedge trimming and therefore filled my brown bin, and it that hedge were two derelict birds' nests. I've refilled the bird seed hoppers so will see if the rat comes back, hopefully he won't.

I think I'll share "Cat Black (The Wizard's Hat)" which I first heard on The Best of T.Rex on the Fly label , but this was recorded as Tyrannosaurus Rex on the album Unicorn

Bookwise with Laura Purcell

I finished Matt Haig's excellent "Notes on a Nervous Planet" and decided to start on Laura Purcell's  novel "The Silent Companions". I bought the book from Amazon to to make up a package so I didn't have to pay postage and it is definitely not the sort of thing that I normally read, although it has definitely drawn me in with it's gothic creepiness. It jumps between three time periods the link being a potential murderess in an asylum , her family and their time ravaged home. It has been compared to various classic gothic novels, and although I I can't really comment on the comparison I can say despite finding it claustrophobic and not my normal far it has got my attention so well that I will happily continue on the end, and I don't really expect it to end well.

I had intended to hit 2K posts for this blog this year which meant I had to post about 210 this year,, but I have already posted 168 times so I could easily hit that target in July, which then means I will be thinking about hitting 3K posts.

Walking, I am still doing the rolling million steps every three months and to complete June I need to do another 56K steps by a week tomorrow so that is another positive for this morning.

I also need to mow the lawn and cut back some hedges, although it never fails to amaze be how much hedge actually grows and needs cutting back, but we have to remember that with a combination of photosynthesis and drawing water from the ground provided by rain plus the recycling of carbon dioxide to produce breathable are, these are essential to use staying alive.

I've also seen a rat in the garden, it actually looked cute and friendly, and was scavenging spilt bird seed and then looking round for something once the seed had gone. I think it was just an itinerant rat , like the hedgehogs and frogs that sometimes appear unexpectedly.

So what do we go with ? "Mad Alice Lane (A Ghost Story)" by (Peter) Lawlor fits the bill, named after a street in York. It was used in a Land Rover advert and reminds me a lot of Portishead and has a very disconcerting vibe while being a great record, although difficult to track down, but not impossible.

Enjoy your Sunday

Women ? Playing Football ?

I've just watched Australia vs Norway which went to extra time and penalties after watching  Germany vs Nigeria earlier. Som "men" has made a big thing about "not watching" the games. Well it's their loss. There is a lot of skill, some very nift touches, great goals, no acting like three year old spoilt brats, and the games are a joy to watch.

I think I've watched more of the Women's World Cup than I did of the men's. We are flooded with football but the women's game gives the impression of people playing for the joy of playing, not chasing a wage packet. And to be quite honest it's a slap on the arse for the misogynists.

Possibly the refereeing is not as polished as the playing, and also because women are generally smaller physically than men the pitches seem much bigger, but the games they give us are excellent, and that's what people come to watch.

The hard work, togetherness and pure joy that they generate is something truly to be savoured.

So what do we choose for music.

It has to be a girl band or singer. So I have gone with the gorgeous "Dark Therapy" by Echobelly who's female members included on vocals Sonya Madan,  Debbie Smith on guitar and Ruth Owen on bass. An incredible song from a great band.

If you haven't watched any of the Women's World Cup, start now. You will be impressed.

It's The Summer Solstice

This came upon me quite suddenly , it's the longest day , the most light , there's sunshine, and it's Friday so basically a very very good day. Although we always assume Friday is good , many people I know work weekends so the Friday thing is not always a huge positive, but I do definitely like Friday because tomorrow provides the opportunity for a lie in , though I probably won't take it.

There's a lot of events and celebratins of The Solstice and thanks to the Internet we can find out out where they are happening and if we want go along to them. Obviously Stonehenge is a husge focal point for this as a sacred place for the Druids to see the Sunrise there.

Then we start getting into the pagan and natural religions which would later be homogenised and corrupted by Christianity, but the Pagan stuff is always more respectful and more fun to be involved, although I am very irreligious.

The number of videos about Stonehenge is big (see here) with lots of facts, theories and hokum, but it is a totally impressive structure, and though simple there's a lot of weight in those stones and remarkable accuracy in their positioning.

Hawkwind played many  festivals around Stonehenge so we will go with the "Watching The Grass Grow" thirty odd years back and the 1984 Festival. Wouldn't surprise me if they tried to be there today but todays corporate security will never allow it.

Forty Days

It looks like Feedburner has burnt out for the blog , but that's forty days of unexpectedly hitting over a thousand hits per day. It didn't actually bring it much advertising revenue either, but just nice to think a few more people (or a lot of robots) visited.

This has to be extremely short as I need to get to Durham and to attend a course , so we'll go with Chuck Berry's "Thirty Days" which is ten days less than the forty days the Feedburner referrals have been upping my visits.

Actually it's been a day strewn with mini disasters, but worked out fine in the end but the visits are back down to 50 a day even though most of those are still from Feedburner.

Another Rainy Day

So another day where I don't have to water the garden. One the things about the Facebook ban is the fact you cannot communicate with anyone unless you play a game with them (I can message people in Scrabble but as I only have two people I play with not very good and I can contact both of those outside the game). A friend messaged me asking if I was OK but I cannot reply in Messenger. Just a warning make sure you have your import friends phone numbers or emails, and, although it may open you up to spam, put some alternate contact on your Facebook profile.

Today is grey and hardly uplifting, but I am being positive, have a course in Durham tomorrow and I see by daughters for a Father's Day get together tomorrow at Bar Loco which is always good.

I've just finished watching Chernobyl, an absolutely stunning mini series, and was struck by the similarities between the Soviet Government of that time and our current Tory Government with Brexit. Both refusing to acknowledge reality so their version of events is the one that's pushed. Having said that I've worked with a few managers who have had that attitude and one once said to me, "You might be right but I am in charge". They crashed and burned.

So what should we play this morning? What about "Go" by Public Service Broadcasting as it is a huge injection of positivity guaranteed to lift you out of any apathetic or lethargic state.

Yes we will GO!

Early To Bed

Just a short post to say how good it is to go to bed early and actually sleep well. That sort of happened last night night and I've woken up to bright sunshine and blue skies, so even though it's Monday and I have to go to work and I have a hospital appointment for some cardio scan, although I think this is just due to the fact that I mentioned that sometimes when walk up inclines I get a bit of tightness in my chest. It's not anything that I consider being a problem but doctors know better than me mostly.

Chris Hawkins has the entertaining Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy (they did the theme to 'Father Ted' among other things)  talking about Dublin as well as playing songs from the new album "Office Politics".

Though I slept well I did wake from some complex dreaming and very often if that happens and I decide to have ten more minutes I fal back into the dream often to find out what happens, which is actually irrelevant  because most of my dreams make no sense at all.


This is post 1957 and 1957 is the year in which I was born, so I found Lonnie Donegan performing two of hits hits from that year "Cumberland Gap" and "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" which is always a good way to start a Monday.

Have a good one.